NASA announcing new discovery about surface of moon

quad_red · 22-10-2020 10:03am #1

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-announce-new-science-results-about-moon

NASA to announce new Science Results About Moon

NASA will announce an exciting new discovery about the Moon from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at a media teleconference at 12 p.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 26. Audio of the teleconference

This new discovery contributes to NASA’s efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration. Under NASA’s Artemis program, the agency will send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024 to prepare for our next giant leap – human exploration of Mars as early as the 2030s. Understanding the science of the Moon also helps piece together the broader history of the inner solar system

quad_red · 22-10-2020 10:04am

Twitter and media are obviously losing it: ‘aliens’.

Any suggestions what you think they’ve found with SOFIA? (Plane based infra red telescope)

Could more definitive water sources be discovered via infrared?

jmlad2020 · 22-10-2020 10:06am

The Alien Moon Base might be about to finally be debunked

Capt'n Midnight · 22-10-2020 6:40pm

They'll be putting 5G on the moon next.

NASA like to make "big" announcements when they need more money.

Nokia will be putting 4G on the moon, all the way to the Horizon. ie. a little over 2Km.

Itssoeasy · 22-10-2020 6:44pm

New discovery about the surface of the moon ? They brought back tonnes of moon rock and other samples from several sites during the moon landings including Apollo 17 where they went to Taurus littrow and really went in detail on the geology. I’m sure it’s interesting but what new things could they discover about the surface that don’t already know ?

Oink · 22-10-2020 6:51pm

...and why do they need to pre-announce the announcement? This better be good.

ps200306 · 23-10-2020 12:57am

I think the cat's out of the bag. One of the panelists for the announcement is Casey Honniball whose specialty is lunar water detection and whose PhD dissertation was on using IR astronomy from SOFIA to this end.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/moon-nasa-news-announcement-water-hydration-lunar-surface-b1221638.html

Gripping suspense story involving a Honniball Lecture? :eek:

2018 vid:

October 2019 PhD dissertation (PDF): Infrared Remote Sensing Of Volatile Components On The Earth And Moon

August 2020 paper: Telescopic Observations of Lunar Hydration: Variations and Abundance
(Honniball et al. in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets).

Quite a lot of typos in the PhD -- she has struggled with dyslexia throughout her education. There's hope for all of us!

Her Twitter thread's a bit of a giveaway -- "successful SOFIA observing run on Sep 1st".

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con747 · 23-10-2020 1:07am

They found Buzz Aldrins lost sock.

[Deleted User] · 23-10-2020 1:08am

They have found Fungi on the moon!

He's doing grand.

s1ippy · 23-10-2020 1:10am

I bet it's that they found the perfect base for their lunar mission. They're sending a load of beyours up in a few years.

I agree the pre-announcement is a bit much. I have enough going on in my life without thinking for a week "maybe there are aliens on the fuçkin moon now as well".

Ekerot · 23-10-2020 1:18am

Finally they'll own up to the Moon being made out of Cheese gromit

ps200306 · 23-10-2020 1:48am

Ekerot wrote: »

Finally they'll own up to the Moon being made out of Cheese gromit

Or a hologram of Cheese gromit.

coylemj · 23-10-2020 12:24pm

Have they found Alan Shepard's (Apollo 14) golf ball?

ps200306 · 23-10-2020 3:55pm

coylemj wrote: »

Have they found Alan Shepard's (Apollo 14) golf ball?

... and he has to take a penalty drop 'cos it's at the bottom of a lake? :pac:

Capt'n Midnight · 23-10-2020 6:06pm

India's Chandrayaan-1 confirmed water on the moon back in 2008.

Itssoeasy · 23-10-2020 11:02pm

As capt says it can’t be water because that’s not news.

Capt'n Midnight · 24-10-2020 12:27am

I half-expect NASA to make a non political announcement on behalf of Trump's re-election campaign.

I fully expect NASA to try to secure funding by bigging it up.

upupup · 24-10-2020 3:33pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

I half-expect NASA to make a non political announcement on behalf of Trump's re-election campaign.

I fully expect NASA to try to secure funding by bigging it up.

"We must start to build a base on the moon before China"
"Its going to be a beautiful thing"
"Make the moon great again"

Maybe the discovery of the cow that jumped over or Michael Jacksons ghost walking around backwards......or is it forwards

Capt'n Midnight · 24-10-2020 3:52pm

upupup wrote: »

"We must start to build a base on the moon before China"

https://pics.me.me/imagine-if-china-while-theyre-up-on-the-moon-decides-37066439.png

ps200306 · 25-10-2020 2:07am

Itssoeasy wrote: »

As capt says it can’t be water because that’s not news.

Yebbut this is gonna be huuge -- the best water ever.

odyssey06 · 26-10-2020 6:18pm

Hidden pockets of water on the moon could be much more common than scientists previously thought, and the discovery could have potential implications for future lunar missions. Researchers suggest that in some cases, tiny patches of ice might exist in permanent shadows no bigger than a coin.
https://www.thejournal.ie/micro-cold-water-traps-on-the-mood-scientists-find-5245420-Oct2020/

Cue jokes re: Irish Water are planning a mission to the moon, as it's easier than fixing our existing network

ps200306 · 26-10-2020 7:10pm

New Scientist: But it still isn’t clear how stable water in this form is over long periods, says William Bottke at the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. “Astronauts might also have great difficulty extracting this water,” he says. “For example, to fill up a bottle, the astronauts might need to process thousands of kilograms of rocks.”

The NASA press release says that within Clavius crater they detected "water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface ... As a comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil".

12 US fluid ounces in a cubic metre is about a litre per 10 tonnes of lunar soil. On the other hand, lunar rocks and soil are about 45% oxygen by weight. If you have the energy to do it you can make 9 litres of water for every kg of hydrogen you transport to the moon. That could be done with solar energy anywhere on the sunlit surface. Intuitively it sounds much more viable than water extraction, but you'd have to run the numbers including the cost of payload to the moon.

So, not very newsworthy except maybe for China. The new lunar base could be a giant prison with chain gangs breaking rocks and living on a teaspoon of water per day.

Capt'n Midnight · 26-10-2020 8:00pm

Processing won't be easy. For these reasons, we conclude that the water we observe is trapped within impact glasses.

ps200306 · 26-10-2020 8:21pm

The water is also so diffuse that it's in neither liquid nor ice form -- you are talking about scraping individual molecules off dust grains.

NASA announcing new discovery about surface of moon

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